Subclinical personality pathology in interpersonal situations: Assessing pathology-relevant behavior

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to describe and evaluate the behavioral component within a model of negative interpersonal outcomes associated with borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality pathology. Undergraduates (n = 60) were recruited and asked to bring a close acquaintance (n = 60) to participate in an interaction. Participants’ behavior was coded from videotapes of the interaction using a modified version of the Riverside Behavioral Q-sort (Funder, Furr, & Colvin, 2000). Participants also completed a measure of borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality pathology. Participants’ behavior was assessed for pathology-relevant behavioral styles using several methods, including two theoretical (lay-expert generated pathology-relevant profiles and interpersonal circumplex based composites) and two empirical (exploratory correlation and factor analysis based composites). The coherence and pathology-relevance of behavioral descriptions produced by each method is examined. Results did not reveal a borderline-relevant behavioral style, but histrionic- and narcissistic-relevant behavioral styles did emerge which were common across the various methods of describing behavior. Implications of these results include directions for assessing pathology-relevant behavior as it relates to subclinical personality pathology and further support for the use of behavioral analysis in the study of personality pathology.